HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G vs Apple A12 Bionic

Comparisons   11-03-2021
   So, which processor or chip is better? Detailed data of speed tests and benchmarks HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G vs Apple A12 Bionic, comparison of GPUs Apple A12 Bionic and Mali-G76 MP18.
   This performance comparison includes two processors: Kirin 990 5G is octa-core (ARM Cortex-A76) and A12 Bionic is gexa-core (Vortex). Both processors went through battery life test and power consumption test. A thorough review of all the specifications of the SoCs, so that it can be easier to understand, is summarized in the table.
   From the comparison video, you can get the results of parallel benchmarking in special testing software such as Geekbench, GFXBench, AnTuTu, Neocore, 3DMark, PCMark, Octane V2, PassMark, Vellamo, Quadrant, WebXPRT 3, Mozilla Kraken, even the gaming performance of SoCs in Sniper 3D, Call of Duty: Mobile, Mortal Kombat, Garena Free Fire - The Cobra, Minecraft Bedrock, Real Racing 3, PUBG, Fortnite etc.
   After looking at the data these benchmarks and videos, you already be able to understand which CPU is better to buy Kirin 990 5G or A12 Bionic and which chip is better for gaming: Need for Speed No Limits, CSR Racing 2, Madout2, Asphalt 9.

Summary benchmark results

As a percentage of the maximum value based on a sample from the entire base of all processors
CPU Benchmark
Based on Antutu and Geekbench score

Kirin 990 5G

32%

A12 Bionic

30%

Battery life test
Power Consumption efficiency (how quickly the processor reduces the battery charge)

Kirin 990 5G

73%

A12 Bionic

72%

Gaming performance
Which CPU is better for gaming

Kirin 990 5G

29%

A12 Bionic

29%

Antutu v10, 9

Antutu benchmark separately tests the performance of the CPU, GPU, and memory speed

	Kirin 990 5G	A12 Bionic
Total score	456731	419987
CPU	127884	117593
GPU	173566	159589
MEM	73076	67188
UX	82211	75591

GeekBench 6, 5.2

This benchmark shows Multi-threaded and Single-threaded processor performance

	Kirin 990 5G	A12 Bionic
Single-Core	945	900
Multi-Core	3118	2970

Comparison of specifications

CPU and Memory

	Kirin 990 5G	A12 Bionic
Frequency	2860 MHz	2490 MHz
Cores	8	6
Bit	64	64
Lithography	7 nm	7 nm
Transistors count		6900 millions
Core configuration	2x2.86 GHz ARM Cortex-A76 2x2.36 GHz ARM Cortex-A76 4x1.95 GHz ARM Cortex-A55	2x2.49GHz Vortex 4x1.6 GHz Tempest
Power consumption (TDP)	6 W	6 W
Memory type	LPDDR4x	LPDDR4X
Max. Memory	12 Gb	12 Gb
Memory Frequency	1600	2133
Memory bandwidth	31.78	34.1
Neural Processor (NPU)	Yes	Yes
L1 cache		128 KB
L2 cache	512 KB	8 MB
L3 cache
Instruction set architecture (ISA)	ARMv8-A	ARMv8.3-A

In this comparison block, you should pay attention to the differences in clock speed and the number of cores. Here Kirin 990 5G is 12% better than A12 Bionic in terms of CPU frequency. Another difference is that Kirin 990 5G has -2 more core than A12 Bionic. Also keep in mind that high CPU frequency affects battery life through power consumption.

GPU and Media

GPU	Mali-G76 MP18	Apple A12 Bionic
GPU Frequency	950 MHz	2500 MHz
GFloPS	581.14	586
# of Cores	18	4
# of Shader Units
Display	2560 x 1600 pixels	2688 x 1242 pixels

The frequency of the GPU does not always directly indicate its performance. To fully evaluate all the capabilities of a graphics chip, you should take into account the number of Shader Units and Cores, as well as how many GFlops it has.

Gaming benchmark

Fortnite Mobile	28.4	27.4
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG Mobile)	57.5	54.2
Garena Free Fire - The Cobra	59.6	56.3
Call of Duty: Mobile	43.6	40.9
Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5 Mobile)	50.7	45.3
Minecraft: Pocket Edition	77.2	74.5
Real Racing 3	74.5	84.5
Sniper 3D	131.1	107
Need for Speed No Limits	83.4	67.6
Mortal Kombat X	86.4	64.7
CSR Racing 2	65.6	78.8

The numbers in this table indicate the maximum FPS that was received on the device with the corresponding processor. Depending on the configuration of the gadget and graphics quality settings (Ultra, Medium, Normal), the results may differ quite significantly. We recommend that you better study the results of the Antutu v10, 9 and GeekBench 6, 5.2 becnmarks.

Cameras

Camera resolution	32 MP	12 MP
Dual Camera resolution		12 MP
Image Signal Processor (ISP)		Apple ISP
Video Encoding FPS	60	960
Video Encoding resolution	4K, 2K, FullHD	4K (Ultra HD), 2K, FullHD
Codec support	H.264, H.265/HEVC	Dolby Vision, H.265 (HEVC), HDR10+, HLG, HDR10, H.264 (AVC), VP8, VP9

Networks and Navigation

Modem	21	Intel XMM 7560 LTE
Download speed	1400 MBit/s.	1000 MBit/s.
Upload speed	900 MBit/s.	350 MBit/s.
Navigation	GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou	Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou, GPS
NFC support	Yes	Yes
5G support	Yes	No

Result:
The number of parameters for which HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G is better: 25
The number of parameters for which Apple A12 Bionic is better: 13
You need to understand that you should not sightlessly trust the automatic comparison on the table. You can watch benchmark video from beginning to end of parallel comparison and listen to what those who really appreciated the capabilities of both SoCs think, as well as read the test results at the links below.

Kirin 990 5G SoC - all data

• Devices lists
• Benchmarks
• PUBG mobile
• Fortnite Mobile
• 3DMark
• GeekBench 6, 5 mobile
• Antutu v10

• Kirin 990 5G specs and review.

A12 Bionic SoC - all data

• Devices lists
• Benchmarks
• PUBG mobile
• Fortnite Mobile
• 3DMark
• GeekBench 6, 5 mobile
• Antutu v10

• A12 Bionic specs and review.